ANTÆUS, in Fabulous History, a giant of Libya, son of Neptune and Terra. Designing to build a temple to his father, of men's skulls, he slew all he met; but Hercules fighting him, and perceiving the assistance he received from his mother (for by a touch of the earth he refreshed himself when weary), lifted him up from the ground, and squeezed him to death.

Antaeus was king of Mauritania; and from several circumstances, with which we are supplied by various authors, it appears extremely probable that he was the same person with Atlas; they were both of them the sons of Neptune, who reigned over Mauritania, Numidia, and a great part of Libya; as may be naturally inferred from having such particular marks of distinction conferred upon him by the inhabitants of those regions. They both ruled with absolute power over a great part of Africa, particularly Tingitania. Hercules defeated and slew Antaeus in the same war wherein he took the Libyan world from Atlas: both Atlas and Antaeus invaded Egypt, and contended with Hercules in the wars with the gods, and were both vanquished by him. Antaeus, as well as Atlas, was famed for his knowledge in the celestial sciences: from whence we may fairly conclude them to have been the same king of Mauritania.